- 60 128. The Government confirmed its acceptance of the visit but requested a postponement due to the heavy schedule of work of the political and military authorities caused by the aggravation of the internal conflict opposing the Sri Lankan armed forces and the members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the northern and eastern parts of the country. 129. The visit finally took place from 19 August to 1 September 2000. The members of the Committee concentrated their activities in Colombo, but also travelled to Kandy, Matale, Dambulla, Panadura and Kalutara in order to visit detention places. However, for security reasons they were not able to visit the northern and eastern parts of Sri Lanka where the armed conflict raged and where many allegations of torture had been reported. During the visit, Mr. Mavrommatis and Mr. Yu Mengjia held 12 meetings with government officials and visited 16 places of detention. The Government gave full support to the visit and was cooperative at all times. 130. Very useful meetings were held with locally based senior officials of the United Nations system who assisted the Committee in understanding the context and background within which allegations of torture could be examined. The two Committee members also held numerous meetings with non-governmental organizations, lawyers and medical doctors dealing with cases of torture. Interviews with alleged torture victims were also conducted. 131. Initial observations and recommendations were made by the Committee members at the wrap-up meeting held with government officials on 31 August 2000. On 6 November 2000 the State party provided a reply concerning the implementation of the initial recommendations. 132. The two members reported on their visit to the Committee at its twenty-fifth session (13-24 November 2000). The Committee unanimously expressed satisfaction with the manner in which Sri Lanka had so far cooperated in the inquiry and endorsed the suggestions made by the members conducting the inquiry that: (a) it would be premature to make a final assessment and to transmit the conclusions of the inquiry at that stage; and (b) it would be more productive to continue the cooperation between the Committee and the Government of Sri Lanka within the framework of the inquiry so as to encourage the Government to take concrete measures to achieve full respect of its obligations under the Convention. 133. In this context, by letter dated 24 November 2000 the preliminary recommendations that the Committee addressed to the Government to assist it in its efforts to improve the implementation of the Convention were transmitted, and the Government was requested to inform the Committee of the action undertaken with regard to those recommendations. The Government provided detailed information concerning the implementation of the preliminary recommendations by communications dated 28 March 2001, 27 April 2001 and 8 November 2001. 134. On 7 September 2001, non-governmental organizations transmitted updated information to the Committee concerning cases of torture, ill-treatment, sexual harassment, rape and deaths in custody in Sri Lanka.